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If you’ve ever tried to keep track of inventory across a metal shop and an e-commerce business, you know how chaotic it can get. So when we finally committed to using a program called Ordoro, it wasn’t because we were chasing the next shiny object. We just needed something to help us make sense of the chaos. And, to our surprise, it’s actually working.
Right now, we’ve rolled it out for our Mountains2Metal operation. (Mountains2Metal is a company that manufactures and sells aftermarket metal accessories for Ford Broncos, Jeeps, and other SUVs.) But the plan is to eventually bring some aspects of Barnes MetalCrafters into the fold once we work out the kinks. It’s been one of those rare upgrades where, instead of asking “Why did we do this?” we’re asking “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
We’ve always had a handle on our finished products. That part wasn’t broken. But the component pieces like the nuts, bolts, tabs, and brackets that go into those finished parts have always lived in more of a we-know-where-they-are kind of system. Most of the stuff can be found in central locations, but some institutional knowledge is required. This approach also calls for a lot of quantity estimating.
Now, thanks to Ordoro, we’re starting to keep digital track of all the bits and pieces. Because all parts or products now have been assigned tracking numbers, when we want to know how many flange nuts are in stock, I don’t have to dig through a bin or holler across the shop. I can just look it up. That’s a small shift that’s making a big difference.
The best part is that it’s not just about inventory. Ordoro ties in our orders, shipping, and even returns, which anyone dealing with online sales knows can get messy. This system helps us manage that in one place, and that alone has saved us a lot of second-guessing and finger-pointing.
Naturally, we added a new employee to the team just two weeks before going live. That meant training her on the old system while also preparing her for something totally different on the horizon. It wasn’t ideal, but it actually turned out to be a good reminder of why we needed the change in the first place.
Once we switched, she was amazed at how nice it was compared to what she had just experienced. Seeing how we used to do things side-by-side with how we do them now made the benefits a lot more obvious, and it made the learning curve easier to swallow for everyone involved.
Usually when you bring in something new, especially something digital, half the shop avoids it while the other half tolerates it. But this time, the majority of the team got involved. Everyone’s been hands-on during the setup and rollout. That might be the most surprising part, people are actually excited to figure it out and make it work better for all of us. When one of your coworkers says, “Oooh, that’s nice!” it makes you feel good.
We’ve also been able to fine-tune a lot of the back-end stuff—things like how we package kits, how we sort hardware, and how we prep parts before they ship. With Ordoro, we can now break kits into subassemblies and track shared parts that used to be invisible in our system. We’re no longer losing track of usable inventory just because it was tucked away in a box somewhere.
In the past, we’d lose out on sales because we technically had the parts but couldn’t sell them. Now, we can fulfill more orders and keep the shelves stocked with what really matters.
I get that most people don’t get to start fresh. They inherit a process and make the best of it. After a while, someone says, “This is how we’ve always done it,” and everyone just rolls with it. We’re trying not to be those people. I’m always looking for ways to improve our processes.
I see other companies that appear to be succeeding, and I’m always wondering what they are doing differently. Now, hopefully, we have made a couple decisions that can push us in a positive direction.
We’ve gone down a couple bumpy paths with other e-commerce software before this. They were learning experiences, not good ones, but they taught us what we don’t want. (I could go on!) I will say it finally feels like we’ve made a solid step in the right direction.
This is just the beginning. We see Ordoro as the first step in a bigger plan to get both Mountains2Metal and Barnes MetalCrafters operating smoother and smarter. Once we’ve got the workflow dialed in on the e-commerce side, it only makes sense to bring the rest of the shop into the system.
I’ll admit, I’ve been enjoying the process more than I expected. There’s something satisfying about building a system that works for your business, not the other way around. And when you finally see all the little parts come together, both physically and digitally, it makes those long days a little more rewarding—one bolt and bracket at a time.
